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Attention to Greece. Class war intensified.

(anarchistnews.org) A small analysis as contribution to counter-information about the events of 20th October.

The facts of the last 48 hour general strike are historical. For the first time in the last years the greek communist party (KKE) have chosen to be present (in terms of space and time) with every other piece of society that demonstrates at syntagma square. But their choice reflected a different quality from the other protesters. They surrounded the parliament in order to protect it. The KKE backed trade-union called PAME lined in front of the parliament in military way carrying clubs and wearing helmets, facing the protesters. They asked for id’s from anyone who wasnt their member and refused to let pass other blocks of demonstrators (not only anarchists, but also other leftists and the union of public cleaners POE-OTA). This led to a very tense situation with people shouting in diassaprovement of the actions of PAME. The conflict begun after the attack of the communist backed unionists to the members of the movement “I dont pay” (Den plirono) which mainly consists of moderate leftists.

In the clashes took part a far larger part of people and they were not all of them anarchists. There were anarchists between them of course but not everyone who fought against PAME was anarchists. The conflict did include clubs, sticks, stones and petrol bombs from the side of the hooded protesters.

After 2 hours of conflicts the police interfere in favour of the unionists to crash the rioters. In the afternoon it was reported that there was one dead of heart attack that was not wounded by the clashes and it is possible the cause of the death to be the tear gas of the police.

These are the facts. From now on i will just try to put my thoughts in order and try to provide an interpretation of the facts in the direction of the insurrectionary goal.

Some basic points in the greek sociopolitical formation

In greece after the fall of the military junta in 1974 the historical period that followed has been called Metapolitefsi (kind of political changeover in one word). This sociopolitical scheme has reached its limits the last years. The form of the government and the state, the rule of law and the social relations that holded the reproduction of the capitalist exploitation were bounded by certain patterns of vertical rollover of certain values and by certain means to the society’s base. By the early 80’s the social-democratic formation had achieved the social cohesion by means of reconciliation between the state and the people. You could achieve a permanent position in a public sector job by giving your vote to whoever gave you that, as an over-simplified but very real example. This is the main mechanism that produced the class of the micro-burgoise in greece.

This way of achieving consent and cohesion has been disrupted in a non-changeable way by the central political choices of the domination to overcome the economic crisis and avoid the default. The immediate effect is that large parts of the society will go down from the micro-burgoise middle class to proletariat precarity in a very violent way. This is the key transformation that is happening. I’m talking about people that (will if they dont already) have nothing left to lose and most of all are not easily representable by any form of mainstream political scheme. KKE not excluded

KKE is one of the most (if not the only one) stalinist communist parties in europe. After it’s been legitimized (1974) it has become a part of the system in every possible way. It has its own busineses, its own typographic company (which is one of the biggest in Balkans) and media (TV station, radio station) and shares a respectable amount of state funding as every party of the parliament does.

“War is the continuation of politics by other means.” Carl von Clausewitz

After the december of 2008 and especially the last 2 years the anarchist/anti-authoritarian speech and practices have spread in a not so easily interpetable way. New squats have been born, new popular assemblies and new ways of self-organization have been put into social test. This is not the place to give a full description of the last 3 years facts but i can say that the social-class war is very intensified. It remains a historical bet the possibillity of new collective revolutionary subjects to come into surface.

“Politics is the coninuation of war by other means.” M. Foucault

One thing is sure. The domination (state-capital and their interconnections) cannot manage with this situation in an obvious regular manner. It is non-manageable. There is an important part of the society that in the last year has been clashing in front of the parliament. Those people are getting in touch with radical values that could be a detonator for something far more dangerous for the ruling capitalist social-relations. Solidarity, self-organization and non-mediated relations when expressed in the streets can go beyond that. They can be transformed into the everyday-life and expand to redefine ths social-relation in radical basis. Against the social values of commodities and paid work, against the cosuming model of the capitalist desert. The anarchist radical slogan “The crisis is not a picture in the news, in the streets consciousnes is born” is now very real. I do not apotheosize the street fighting practises here but i insist that we have a strong potentiality of radicalization here. And the clashes with the police and the stalinists is just an instance of it. The bet remains the same as above.

This non-manageable situation is interpreted as it is by the stalinist leadership of the KKE. They did take a political decision to protect the parliament and the “public order” in front of it. A mainstream political thinker would put a straight question in the table:

“If, in a coordinated ruling state, the monopoly of violence is no longer exercised by the police but with its consent is given to a part of the society (the KKE in our case) then waht does this stand for?”

The answer is given by a combination of factors in the context that is described above. The fact of the KKE-backed protection of the parliament reflects certain political agreements between that party and the elite block of domination. The communist party tried to show everyone that they can manage the situation. They can maintain social peace. They standed there, in front of the parliament and tried to say to everyone that:
“I am here, and this is the proper way to express your protest and if you dont do it the way i say, then you are anarcho-fascist (sic) you are a member of the para-state and provocateur.”

This rhetoric scheme is aligned with the dominant way the media and the elite parties interpret the clashes in the streets. KKE takes a position, by its speech and its practice, with their side.

The majority of the so called radical left (inside and outside of the parliament) did embody in its speech the points of the KKE, trying to keep a distance from the petrol bombs which were thrown to the militant part of the unionists and keeping alive a delusion about the real role of the KKE and the “common purpose”.

“The barricades are a mixture of pain and ideas”

I really cannot imagine what those stalinist psychos have in the back of their head. For one thing i’m sure though. That the combinational truth of Clausewits and Foucault quotes will be the main rule that will describe the aspects of social life. As time goes by there will be more and more obvious the formation of two rival camps. The one will consist of everyone who wants the continuation of the reproduction of capitalist relations by all means possible, the other will consist of everyone who wants to destroy them. This is the most honest and cold-blooded estimation i can do.

Resistance – Self-organisation – Solidarity
For the abolition of classes, social relations and the roles that capitalism has attached and imposed to us.